Keego Harbor awaits state's decision on police labor dispute

The City of Keego Harbor is awaiting a decision from the Michigan Employment Relations Commission regarding a labor dispute between a former police officer and the current police chief.

Two years after a hearing on the matter, and nearly four years after the incidents began, a state administrative law judge, Doyle O’Connor, issued his take on the matter in late June, about what he described as a “feud” between Keego Harbor Police Chief Ken Hurst and Officer Robert Alonzi in 2009-10. The state said a decision is expected before Oct. 3, 2014.

Alonzi, a Keego officer since 2005, and Hurst — appointed Keego’s acting chief in August 2009, and then full-time chief in November 2009 — clashed over procedures and discipline, according to the records provided by the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs’ Michigan Administrative Hearing System and the City of Keego Harbor.

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The main issues involve Alonzi’s union alleging that the city — as the employer — denied union representation during investigatory interviews and threatened retaliation.

Alonzi was suspended several times and was ultimately terminated in July 2010.

The city denies most of O’Connor’s decisions from the June 28 order and filed its own responses in late August.

Alonzi and Keego Mayor Sid Rubin declined comment on this case.
Hurst said Wednesday: “It’s premature to put the cart before the horse (to draw any conclusions) before the commission makes a decision.”

Overtime, outside employment, taking orders

In reviewing both the state and Keego documents on the situation, they show Hurst, a former Sheriff’s sergeant, served as Keego’s acting police chief, reporting to a city manager and council. Alonzi, who worked the midnight shift, was among Keego’s staff of four to six officers. Alonzi, who had a law degree and worked on the side as an attorney, also had applied for the position of Keego’s chief of police — which Hurst finally received.

The first situation on record involved whether Alonzi was permitted overtime for a particular week in September 2009. Hurst said he wasn’t to receive overtime; Alonzi said he should have it.

In meetings with the chief, Alonzi, according to the city, “treated the chief’s comments like a joke, laughing at his orders and treating him with disrespect.”

State records show Hurst held a investigatory interview Oct. 7, 2009, where he “allowed” a union representative to be present. The union representative was ordered to sit there and not interrupt. Both Hurst and Alonzi recorded the conference.

The state said Hurst “openly purported to record the entire meeting when ... (he recorded) the rational part in an effort to create false evidence. He excluded ... (the part) where he unleashed his obscenity-laden, screaming and threatening tirade.”

Alonzi’s own recording, done without Keego’s knowledge, “serves as the best evidence of what transpired,” said the state report.

Hurst suspended Alonzi for five days in October 2009, saying Alonzi was insubordinate in September and that he had improperly parked his car in view of an area bar, contrary to Hurst’s instructions.
The state report notes Keego police had no problems “pulling over black males” and (expletive) foreign-born residents “driving through Keego en route to Pontiac as long as the selection process was not overt.” Keego said Alonzi said this; the state said the statements came from Hurst. Alonzi filed a grievance about the discipline.

Another bone of contention came over Alonzi’s outside employment. The city wrote that Keego “has the ability to prevent such employment to protect its interests.”

In April 2010, Alonzi was suspended for 30 working days because Hurst said he violated the order restricting outside work. Alonzi again filed a grievance.

On May 13, 2010, Hurst told Alonzi that the Keego council passed rules prohibiting Alonzi — and all other police officers — from performing work outside the job without permission by the police chief.
Hurst again suspended Alonzi after it was found a civilian used Alonzi’s badge.

After a criminal investigation, the civilian was prosecuted and Alonzi cleared, however, said the state judge, Alonzi wasn’t reinstated or compensated for the time off.

On May 25, 2010, Alonzi was notified of his permanent layoff effective July 1, with Keego officials citing declining revenue.

The report shows both men tried to have the FBI investigate the other.

Both men chastised by judge

The state administrative judge admonishes Hurst for “striking pettiness and vindictiveness in dealing with subordinates, which suggests an overly glorified self-perceived importance.

“Hurst well matched Humphrey Bogart’s famous elucidation of the mindset of a petty tyrant commanding the tiniest of warships, Captain Queeg (in the film, “The Caine Mutiny”). Hurst went after Alonzi with the misplaced and paranoiac zeal of Queeg, and with everything up to and including the FBI.

“There is nothing in the least dishonest, surprising or improper about Alonzi seeking the pay (which he may have been entitled to).”

Keego responds, saying, “Hurst is entitled to give orders to his officers.” The city also stated that the judge’s recommendations were written “as if he was writing his own piece of fiction.”

Alonzi doesn’t fare much better in the state report.

“An employer might well conclude from Alonzi’s conduct throughout that in Alonzi, the department had an especially ill-tempered, manipulative, unctuous and uncommonly self-righteous officer,” O’Connor wrote.

Before Hurst arrived at the department, Alonzi had requested the FBI to investigate the mayor, according to the state.

“He threatened or pursued efforts at criminal investigations against essentially all prior employers,” wrote O’Connor. “It may well be that Alonzi acted throughout with the knowledge that his eventual layoff was a foreordained economics-based certainty, and that he in part knowingly goaded the bombastic Hurst into precipitous and unlawful action.”

The state judge noted, though, that Alonzi offering Hurst the “rope to hang himself” doesn’t alter what the judge saw as “adverse employment actions.”

The order recommends that Keego stop interfering with employees’ rights to grieve and have union representation, and that Keego stop threatening employees with retaliation.

The order continues that Alonzi should have his suspensions rescinded, and that the (rule) prohibiting outside employment be rescinded.

It concludes the city should pay Alonzi for lost pay, both as an officer and private attorney, and benefits and restore his seniority as an officer.

Keego is asking the state commission to overturn all aspects of the state judge’s order and dismiss the unfair labor practice charges.

About the Author

Carol Hopkins covers Waterford and White Lake townships. She has a master's degree in journalism from the University of Michigan, and she worked as a senior editor for Detroit Monthly magazine and as a reporter for The Oakland Press since 2003. Reach the author at carol.hopkins@oakpress.com
or follow Carol on Twitter: @OPCarolHopkins.